Johnston Press election website lets ordinary people have their say

With less than a month to go until the general election, Johnston Press, publisher of this website, has launched What Matters To Me, a unique site made up of a growing collection of short videos showing the issues at the top of the agenda – according to the people, not the parties.

Johnston Press journalists have been taking to the streets, both within and beyond the business’ footprint, to ask the public “what matters to you in this election?”, and have already started to capture the feelings and the thoughts of those in villages, towns and cities across the UK.

Over the coming days and weeks hundreds of people - from Land’s End to John o’ Groats - will add their opinions to the site.

Under 30 seconds long, every video is tagged by the issue and the location, and users are given the option to ‘upvote’ or share their favourites.

Trending videos, based on a combination of the number of views, shares and upvotes they have, are highlighted by geography and topic too.

What Matters to Me will also feature a ‘live map’ that will continually evolve as new videos are added to show how important key issues are, compared with others, at different stages of the election campaigns.

Ashley Highfield, CEO, Johnston Press, said: “I’m proud and excited to be able to announce the launch of What Matters to Me at this crucial stage in the election.

“It offers a fascinating overview of sentiment across the UK, outlining how it differs in the smallest of towns to the biggest of cities.

“But perhaps, more importantly, it shows where attitudes are the same – connecting communities not just by their location, but by what matters to them.”

Paul Napier, JP’s Group Editorial Development Director and heading up the What Matters to Me initiative, said: “As the election campaigns heat up, What Matters to Me will take the focus away from party politics, and shine a spotlight on the issues themselves, from the perspective of the people.

“We wanted to give real people in communities up and down the country a platform to raise these issues, as well as feel part of something bigger, and with What Matters to Me we have been successful in doing that.”